Chocolate Syrup

Kids must talk about a lot of stuff when they are at preschool. Even though Matheus only stays at school for 3 hours, he sometimes come home with the greatest ideas, and sometimes not all that good…
Lately he has been asking me to take him to a specific fast-food chain, just because a couple of his friends said it is their favorite place to eat. Oh my, and here I go, planning on a day to take my kid to have some greasy chicken nuggets… yuck! At least I hope that all my teaching about healthy foods will help him make good choices when eating out as he grows up.
Another of his requests lately was that he wanted to try chocolate milk make with chocolate syrup, instead of the chocolate powder we normally use. Well, this one was easy, as I had a recipe on my to try pile just waiting for an excuse to be tested.
Besides being super easy, it is a healthier choice for chocolate syrup, made with natural and simple ingredients, as opposed to the “corn syrup and artificial flavorings’ filled” commercial variety.
I made the syrup yesterday, and at night the three of us enjoyed yummy cups of chocolate milk! Fun, and delicious! It does taste really good, plus it is great to use in ice cream and all kinds of desserts, and to make your plates look pretty too!
Enjoy!
Ana

Note: I made 1/3 of the recipe and it yielded me one squeeze bottle! Oh, and there was a couple tablespoons of corn syrup on the original recipe, which I omitted, as I don’t have that stuff in the house.

Cocoa Syrup
(Adapted from foodtv.com – Recipe from Alton Brown)

1 1/2 cups water
3 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups Dutch-processed cocoa
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

In a small pot, bring water and sugar to a boil and whisk in cocoa, vanilla, salt, and corn syrup. Whisk until all of the solids have dissolved. Reduce sauce until slightly thickened. Strain and cool to room temperature. Pour into squeeze bottles.